Many paranormal investigators use a
device known as a “ghost box,” which is essentially a radio that has
been altered in such a way that it constantly cycles through stations,
providing snippets of sound that spirits can presumably use to create
words and sentences. I remember first hearing of this contraption,
hearing the explanation of how it works, and thinking to myself, “HUH?
Spirits can do this? Who says?” I could not imagine how anyone could
come to the conclusion that spirits would actually be able to
manipulate radio frequencies to this extent, it is a fantastical
claim.

Nevertheless, this
concept did not come across as strange to many groups, and they busily
set about testing it out. To their surprise, words and phrases
actually did emit from this mysterious box in response to their
questions. I knew that it was only a matter of time before I would be
expected to sit in on one of these sessions.

Before that even happened however, I
tried to come up with possible explanations, in my own mind, for the
positive results obtained by these groups. It seemed to me that what
was likely happening is the participants’ ears were hearing
unintelligible sounds and their brains were organizing them into
responses to the questions asked. I have read about many excellent
examples of this, such as the claim that our eyes do not even need to
see all letters in order to comprehend. Try reading the following:

As you can see, our brains do most of the
work for us when processing information. What appears, at first
glance, to be a random pile of letters and numbers is effectively
sorted into relevance by our brain as we go along.

When the time came for my first sit in on
a ghost box session, I knew what I had to do. As the first question
was asked, I plugged my ears. As soon as I unplugged them, I heard a
snippet come out of the box, what sounded like a man saying,
“Lorraine.” Everyone else present gasped and said, “Maine, did you
hear that?” they all seemed to agree that the voice had said Maine. I
asked what the question had been, and they told me it was “what state
are you from?” Perhaps if my ears had been unplugged and my mind had
been primed to hear the name of a state, I would have also heard
Maine. But I did not.

For every subsequent session I was
fortunate enough (detect sarcasm here) to attend, I either plugged my
ears for the question or listened to the question and then forced my
ears to really listen afterward. With concentration, I was able to
focus on what was actually coming out of the device, not what I was
expecting to hear in response, and absolutely every time I heard
something different from the rest of the group.

Another interesting
observable phenomena that takes place while using the ghost box is the
power of suggestion. Group members unable to discern what is being
said “hear” what others hear, once it is spoken aloud. To test your
own hearing, find the creatively made videos that are the
re-imaginings of song lyrics when they are in a foreign language;
captions on the screen convince your brain. My favorite example of
this is a video that, for a time, was a staple of my dear friend’s
internet show, watch here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLpROhIg9eA
In addition to being a catchy tune and responsible for much bopping in
my chair, I was impressed by the way my brain convinced my ears that
they were really hearing the lyrics suggested.

Due to the tests that I had conducted
myself, during every ghost box session for which I was present, and
getting the identical result each time, it became impossible for me to
take this device, or any “evidence” obtained, seriously. Knowing the
capabilities of our brains and knowing that any intelligible answers
may be the creation of our own minds, it is necessary for me to
dismiss the ghost box as yet another tool that was created to
encourage false positive results. I would speculate that the practice
of finding voices and words in the white noise of a radio came about
because people convinced themselves they were hearing things that
weren’t actually there; things of which were made sense by their very
efficient brains. If we are expecting a certain word, a certain
inflection, or a certain tone, it will be heard thusly, and we will be
able to say, “we heard it with our own ears!” when a more accurate
statement would be, “we heard it with our own brains!”